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What is a Language Disorder?

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) defines a language disorder as an impairment in comprehension and/or use of a spoken, written, and/or other symbol system. The disorder may involve the form of language (grammar), the content of language (meaning) and/or the function of language in communication (pragmatics), in any combination.

But what does that really mean?

There are three main areas of language: expressive language, receptive language and pragmatic language.

Expressive language refers to what a child says.

Receptive language refers to the language a child understands.

Pragmatic language refers to the social use of language, or how a child uses language to relate to others and “function” in our world.

A child may exhibit an impairment in one, two or all three areas of language in any combination.

What does a Language Disorder look like?

A child with an expressive language disorder may demonstrate:

Limited expressive vocabulary

Shorter utterance/sentence length

Decreased variety of words used

Nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns

Grammatical errors

Difficulty with plurals, pronouns (using he for she, they, him or her), past tense verbs, deleting articles (the or a)

Difficulty with sentence structure

Produces sentences with words that are out of order

Difficulty structuring and retelling stories (in both written and oral form)

A child with a receptive language disorder may demonstrate difficulty with:

Understanding basic age-appropriate concepts

Big/little, dirty/clean, more/less, same/different, longer/longest

Following verbal commands

One-step for children ages 1-3 (sit down, get the ___, give me ____)

Multiple- step for children ages 4-8 (get your journal and write your name at the top)

Identifying categories

Answering yes/no questions

Asking and answering wh-questions

What, who, when, where, why

Answering questions about a story

A child with a pragmatic language disorder may demonstrate difficulty with:

While both are considered to fall under the umbrella of a communication disorder, a language disorder is different from a speech disorder. A language disorder is an impairment of our understanding and use of language. A speech disorder is an impairment in our ability to physically produce language. Difficulty producing specific sounds, articulation disorders and stuttering are examples of speech disorders.